In the past, attempts to create novel flavors in alcoholic beverages have been actively made. In respect of beer and happoshu (low-malt beer beverage), for example, those having various flavors have been developed and provided to satisfy recent wide varieties of tastes of consumers. In such attempts, impartment of refreshing finish, which is so-called “crispness” is one of the problems in production of beer and low-malt beer beverages.
Production of malt fermented beverages with crispness is achieved to some extent by reducing use proportion of malt in starting materials. Such a method, however, tends to degrade robust feel and refreshing finish in comparison with a malt fermented beverage in which malt is used at higher proportion. For addressing this, a fermented malt alcohol beverage offering clean aftertaste, namely “crispness” by adding trehalose, which is disaccharide, is proposed (Patent document 1).
As an attempt to improve flavor, an alcoholic beverage produced by combining plural kinds of liquor components is also proposed, and as such, a method of producing alcoholic beverages, which improves drinkability of cold “sake” (Japanese rice wine) by adding an appropriate amount of Mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine) to sake, is proposed (Patent document 2). Also proposed is a method of improving taste of fermented barley malt beer beverage which involves aging in a used whisky or wine barrel after fermentation in order to impart bold and mild taste to the beer (Patent document 3).
These solutions, however, are still insufficient to produce a malt fermented beverage with crisp taste without impairing the robust feel in respect of flavor of beer or low-malt beer beverage. In addition, these studies for developing malt fermented beverages that offer such special flavors are not necessarily satisfactory.    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-299322    Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-322545    Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-236467